Tennessee Republicans expelled two Black lawmakers from the State Senate, but a White woman colleague, who escaped being thrown out by one vote, said the men were forced out because of the color of their skin. 

“We are not White,” said Gloria Johnson who is white. But she may have meant that she is not a White man.

Justin Pearson and Justin Jones and Johnson, all Democrats, were accused of disrupting the State Senate in Nashville to raise the issue of gun violence following the shooting at the Covenant School, a private Christian elementary school, last Monday in which a gunwoman armed with an assault rifle, killed three children and three adults. Police fatally shot the shooter. 

Pearson, Jones, and Johnson used bullhorns to get the attention of their fellow Senators in the chamber after their individual microphones were shut off. Senate leaders called the use of bullhorns a violation of decorum and this constituted the reason the two were expelled.

President Joe Biden even condemned Republican lawmakers’ actions Thursday evening. “Three kids and three officials were gunned down in yet another mass shooting,” Biden wrote on Twitter. “And what are GOP officials focused on? Punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action. It’s shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent.”

Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to travel to Tennessee today to express the administration’s disappointment with the legislators’ move. She will also meet with both Pearson and Jones.

Tennessee State Police officers stood shoulder to shoulder to block the entrance to the state house as supporters shouted their disapproval from outside the building and from the chamber’s balcony.

Both Pearson and Jones said they will run again for their seats. After Johnson was saved by one vote, members of the audience chanted “Gloria.”

Pearson said Tennessee is where the Klu Klux Klan, a White terrorist organization, was founded and called the expulsion an act of White supremacy and an example of White-male patriarchy. But men were expelled by a vote of 72-25 nearly along party lines.

Both Jones and Pearson represent Nashville, and Johnson represents Knoxville.

Several members of the Metro City Council say they will vote to reappoint Jones as soon as the council meets again. Freddie O’Connell tweeted that the expulsion “is an affront both to lives lost and to the will of the voters.”

The Metro Council of Nashville will have a special meeting on Monday, April 10 to discuss filling the now-vacant District 52 seat.

Expulsion by the Senate is rare.



In 2022, the state senate expelled a Democrat, Katrina Robinson, after she was convicted of using $3,400 in federal grant money on wedding expenses instead of her nursing school tuition.

Before that case, state lawmakers last ousted a house member in 2016, voting 70-2 to remove Republican Jeremy Durham after an investigation detailed allegations of improper sexual contact with at least 22 women in four years in office.